2013 MotoGP Championship Provisional Calendar v.2

The FIM has issued a revised version of the 2013 MotoGP calendar. The new calendar is only a minor update to the initial calendar issued on September 21st, with only one real change, the switching of the Sachsenring to a week earlier. That move was forced on the FIM, as Formula One had scheduled the Grand Prix of Germany at the Nurburgring for the same date. Holding an F1 race and a MotoGP race in the same country and on the same date was not a viable situation, and so the Sachsenring race was moved.

The other update to the calendar was not a change, but a confirmation. The Grand Prix of the Americas has been confirmed as taking place on April 21st, at the brand new Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. That had been widely expected, but could not be confirmed until contracts were signed. The continuing dispute between the Circuit of the Americas and Kevin Schwantz over the rights to organize the Austin round of MotoGP will not affect the scheduling of the race.

The only race left still to be confirmed is the race in Argentina. Work continues at the circuit, and reports in Argentina are positive that the race will go ahead as planned. But the decision to go ahead or not is out of the hands of the circuit, the FIM and Dorna: both the Spanish government and Repsol, the Spanish oil giant whose Argentinian subsidiary Repsol YPF was nationalized by the Argentine government, are opposed to MotoGP going to Argentina. If the Spanish government issues an official warning against Repsol staff traveling to Argentina, the race will not be able to go ahead.

The calendar is still provisional, with a final draft expected some time after the Valencia Grand Prix. There is only one clash between the F1 and MotoGP calendars left, with the Brno round of MotoGP set against the Belgian F1 race at Spa-Francorchamps, but there is little room for the Brno round to be moved. Other calendar clashes all occur in different time zones, meaning the races will not go up against one another in the TV schedules, something with MotoGP does its level best to avoid. The latest version of the 2013 calendar can always be found on this page.

Below is the updated calendar issued by the FIM:

2013 MotoGP Provisional Calendar, Updated October 16th (Changes in Bold):

* Evening Race
** Saturday Race
*** MotoGP Race Only
TBC – To Be Confirmed

Source: MotoGP; Photo: © 2012 Scott Jones / Scott Jones Photography – All Rights Reserved

This article was originally published on MotoMatters, and is republished here on Asphalt & Rubber with permission by the author.